Tippett, Naismith ruled out of Swans' clash

THE Sydney Swans' hopes of ending their winless run this season have taken a massive blow with both Kurt Tippett and Sam Naismith ruled out of tonight's crucial game against West Coast in Perth.

Tippett and Naismith stayed in Sydney in a bid to prove their fitness when their team mates flew west on Wednesday afternoon.

The short turnaround hampered Tippett's hopes of recovering from an ankle injury he picked up against the Western Bulldogs two weeks ago while Naismith hurt his knee in the team's last training session at the SCG on Tuesday.

"Unfortunately, Kurt didn't get up, we gave him every chance,” Longmire said.

"He did a little bit of training but being a Thursday game it made it a bit tough for him to get up. Sam Naismith hurt his knee at training in the last training drill, we wanted to give him every chance too, but unfortunately he hasn't come up either so those two boys will miss this week and we'll see how they go next week.”

Talented young ruckman Darcy Cameron was also unavailable due to a shoulder injury picked up during the Swans reserves match in the NEAFL at the weekend.

Callum Sinclair is the only healthy ruck remaining on Sydney's playing list and will do the heavy lifting against his old team with support from Sam Reid.

"We got Callum for that reason to be able to come in and play really good, strong hard footy for four quarters and he's got a big task ahead of him but he's not the only one,” Longmire said.

"There's plenty of others who have jobs ahead of them and I'm sure he'll get a hand from a few of the boys. They're looking forward to the challenge of taking on the Eagles here with a strong midfield.”

One bright light for John Longmire was the surprise return of Tom Papley from a knee injury. The surprise packet from last year has not played at all in 2017 after surgery on his shin for compartment syndrome and then on his knee.

"It's good to have him back in, he gives us great energy, he's an important goalkicker for us,” Longmire said.

"Tom's ability to play as that small, crumbing forward in our front half has been really missed over the last few weeks so it's good to have him back in and hopefully he's really lively in our front half.”

Papley comes into the team along with Harry Cunningham for Jordan Dawson and the injured Naismith.